Welcome to everyone for the Blessed Isle blog tour. Blessed Isle is my Age of Sail m/m romance novella, which came out from Riptide on the 31st of December. I’m Alex Beecroft, and I’m taking over today thanks to the generosity of Book Reviews & More by Kathy. Here’s hoping I don’t do anything to cause them to regret it 😉

As a giveaway on this tour I’m offering either the two books of the Under the Hill series, or any other two ebooks in my back catalogue.

The giveaway works like this; with every post on the tour, I’ll ask a question about Blessed Isle. If you’re interested in entering the competition, email me the answer to the questions off blog (ie, not in the comments.) Then at the end of the tour, I’ll make a list of everyone who got all the answers right, and out of that list, I’ll pick a winner at random.

With a rather silly dance of joy. Then my husband bought me a bottle of champagne and we polished that off between us.

Do you have any special writing rituals?

I am married to a man who builds computers, so we have a house full of machines he’s brought home and repaired. My writing ritual basically consists of stepping away from the computer I use for fun and social media, and going into another room where I have a computer I don’t use for anything but writing. When I’m in the spare bedroom, on that computer, I know there’s only one reason for it – I’m there to write.

Are you involved with any LGBTQ organizations?

I donate to and run the egroup WhosoeverRainbowfishUK, which is an online group associated with Whosoever Magazine. So many people seem to think you can either be gay or be Christian but not both. I think it’s important to know that you can be gay and still keep your faith, and that while clearly some Christians condemn you, not all do, and those who do so are wrong to do it.

Have you ever written to music?

No. I’ve certainly tried on several occasions, because it seems like such a nice idea and I love the thought of doing soundtracks for my books. But when it comes down to it, I find myself listening to the music instead of writing. It’s too distracting – I need silence instead.

Do you have a writing tip to share with our viewers?

It may surprise you that I didn’t figure this one out earlier, but my best ever piece of writing advice is ‘don’t stop writing until the book is finished.’ I had a habit of losing interest five chapters in, putting that story down and starting another, and then losing interest in that one too. So I have any number of starts of novels in my ‘never finished’ drawer. I only began to successfully write whole novels when I told myself I was forbidden to stop writing any particular story until it was finished. Now I finish everything I start, even if I hate it while I’m doing it. I often find that even the things I deeply resented while I was writing them, I enjoy reading when they’re finished. Basically “do not stop until it’s done!” Best writing tip ever.

Is there any topic you find taboo?

There are things that just don’t do it for me, and there are things that I would frown on in real life because they were damaging (incest, for example.) But I don’t think there’s anything that ought not to be written about. That would be like saying that there are things we ought not to think about. How can we have any rational opinions on things if we aren’t allowed to examine them by thinking and writing about them?

What do you think of the Fifty Shades of Grey craze?

I haven’t read it, and I understand that it portrays a relationship which is one of those things – like the rape fantasy – that might sound hot in fiction but wouldn’t be so great in real life. It’s not a kink I share. But at the same time, I think it’s quite hopefully that this is a generation in which a woman can get rich by writing a book that caters to the fantasies of women, and although society seems a bit baffled, nobody’s been taken to court or imprisoned yet. I wish I knew what had made it so popular, so I could do some of that myself!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

In The Glass Floor, which I’m writing at the moment, one of my heroines has the superpower of being so extremely likeable that everyone wants to do things to please her. I initially thought this was a bit of a wimpish power, but oh boy is it proving useful! “Give myself up to the police? Will it make you smile? OK then!” I’m actually having to dream up ways in which to rein it in, otherwise everyone would just happily agree to do whatever she wanted. So I’ll have that, thanks!

Do you respond to all of your fan mail?

Absolutely! If someone emails me, I always email back. I haven’t had any letters, because I haven’t given out my address. Other writers advise never to reply to reviews – not even to just say thanks, so I don’t do that. But if someone takes the time to actually send me an email or drop me a comment on FB or LJ or wherever, talking about my books, of course I reply. It would be ungrateful not to.

For Captain Harry Thompson, the command of the prison transport ship HMS Banshee is his opportunity to prove his worth, working-class origins be damned. But his criminal attraction to his upper-crust First Lieutenant, Garnet Littleton, threatens to overturn all he’s ever worked for.

Lust quickly proves to be the least of his problems, however. The deadly combination of typhus, rioting convicts, and a monstrous storm destroys his prospects . . . and shipwrecks him and Garnet on their own private island. After months of solitary paradise, the journey back to civilization—surviving mutineers, exposure, and desertion—is the ultimate test of their feelings for each other.

These two very different men each record their story for an unfathomable future in which the tale of their love—a love punishable by death in their own time—can finally be told. Today, dear reader, it is at last safe for you to hear it all.

Note: This is a revised, stand-alone edition of the story originally published in the Hidden Conflict anthology in 2009.

Author Bio:

Alex Beecroft was born in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and grew up in the wild countryside of the English Peak District. She studied English and Philosophy before accepting employment with the Crown Court where she worked for a number of years. Now a stay-at-home mum and full time author, Alex lives with her husband and two daughters in a little village near Cambridge and tries to avoid being mistaken for a tourist.

Alex is only intermittently present in the real world. She has lead a Saxon shield wall into battle, toiled as a Georgian kitchen maid, and recently taken up an 800 year old form of English folk dance, but she still hasn’t learned to operate a mobile phone.

i would ADORE to win a copy of this book. this is the kind of genre i like to read. i won’t be able to afford to get it for a long while w/ me currently looking for work and the fact my local library wont carry this kind of work

Thanks Laurie! Maybe I should do a Goodreads giveaway of Blessed Isle and give you the chance that way. I haven’t figured out how to do that yet, but surely it can’t be terribly hard. I’ll do that after this tour 🙂

Oh How I adore your storytelling! Because of you, Ms Alex, I got hooked on Historical Gay Novels. So far I have read three of your books and have loved them all. I thank you for the chance at winning this one!

Hee! Thank you, Rush 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoy my historicals 🙂 Have you read Elin Gregory’s On a Lee Shore at all? I think if you like my age of sail stuff, you’d like that too. And I’m definitely going to do a Goodreads giveaway for this one, once the tour is over, as long as I can figure out how to do so 😉 Thanks!

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The Week Ahead Dec. 11-17

This week's book reviews:
December 11: Bel, Book and Scandal by Maggie McConnon (Recent Release)
December 12: You’re Gonna Love Me by Robin Lee Hatcher (New Release)
December 12: Bury the Past by James L’Etoile (New Release)
December 14: Unnatural Causes by Dawn Eastman (New Release)
Blog Tours & Spotlights:
December 11: Maggie McConnon
December 12: G.B. Gordon
December 14: Viki Lyn
Winter Wonderland Giveaway
December 11: As You Were, Cowboy by Heather Long
December 12: Operation Greencard by G.B. Gordon
December 13: West Coast Love by Tif Marcelo
December 14: How to Blow It with a Billionaire by Alexis Hall
December 15: Only You by Addison Fox
December 16: It Takes Two to Tumble by Cat Sebastian
December 17: Holiday with a Twist by Shannon Stacey
Winning Wednesday eBook Giveaway will resume December 30 Friday Feature:
Rachel Lacey
Saturday Series Spotlight & Giveaway will resume December 30